The Caribbean Celebrates Regional Testing Day on Friday June 30, 2017

PRESS RELEASE:-Regional Testing Day (RTD) is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this Friday June 30 when people from 21 countries across the Caribbean will be afforded the opportunity to get tested for HIV at over three hundred (300) sites across the region. The aim is to test one hundred thousand (100,000) people across the region during this 10th anniversary year. Last year over twenty thousand (20,000) people were tested in 20 countries at over 300 testing sites.

Regional Testing Day has been organised by LIVE UP: The Caribbean Media Alliance for the last ten years, with the support of two (2) critical strategic partners: Scotiabank and the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV AIDS (PANCAP). Scotiabank makes their bank branches accessible so the public can be tested easily as they do their banking business while extending hospitality to the testing and counselling teams and taking care of any external infrastructure needed at testing sites. PANCAP mobilizes all Ministries and Departments of Health who in turn provide all the Counseling and Testing Teams. The Ministries of Health provide the testing kits, expertise and resources to conduct the testing at the agreed locations.

A major milestone of the 10th Anniversary Regional Testing Day celebrations was the presentation of thirty-three (33) awards to organizations and individuals from across the Caribbean who have worked tirelessly over the last ten years in support of Regional Testing Day (RTD) activities. The awardees hailed from St. Lucia, Jamaica Belize, Haiti, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts-Nevis, Dominica and the British Virgin Islands. LIVE UP: The Caribbean Media Alliance presented the awards to 21 individuals and 12 organizations as part of its continued promotion of its unique media brand, addressing HIV and issues of human rights and social justice in the Caribbean.